Oberleutnant zuer See with Luft Observer's Badge

[Bob Lyons]

A nice period photo showing a Kriegsmarine Oberleutnant zur See wearing his dress Frock Coat at his wedding,
and also wearing a Luftwaffe Beobachter Abzeichen (Observer's Badge).

Date is unknown, sadly no other information, just a smaller period photo showing an interesting Luftwaffe qualification
badge being worn by a member of the Kriegsmaine on his wedding day.

Cheers

Bob

[Adrian]

That is a great photo Bob! Thanks for posting it. Always interesting to see awards from another branch of service being worn on the uniform of a completely different service.
It seems to me that there is more cross over between Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine than with the afore mentioned and the Heer. At least from the images I have seen while collecting.

[Neil Hever]

Could it be that he was aloft in a naval aircraft launched from a ship or assigned to a seaplane requiring cross training with the Luftwaffe?

[Kohima]

As a dedicated airforce was effectively banned, following the Great War, while a small, defensive Navy (including aviation) was permitted, large numbers of naval aviators transferred into the new Luftwaffe upon its formation. Similarly, many aircrew (notably fighter types), had previously served as artillerymen, already familiar with the principles of indirect fire and deflection shooting.
I agree with Adrian, regarding such photographs - some of these men have such diverse collections of awards, you cannot help but wonder about their career paths.
Nice image, Bob!

[Mitch]

For my part, I have already seen a photo of a panzermann with the uboot badge

[Bob Lyons]

The big KM ships all had catapult aircraft on them too, and an observer would have been a part of the aircraft crew....

Bob

[Witt]

Not finding another portrait photo of a sailor with any Luftwaffe medals to compare with. Inversely to what Mitch said, I found an interesting photo of a sailor who was previously a panzerman.




I would say Bob’s photo depicts a man that transfered to the Kriegsmarine from the Luftwaffe or he was in the service years before the war. It looks to me like he is also wearing the Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. Klasse for four years of service. Correct me if I am wrong but I read that the observer pilots on Kriegsmarine ships were Luftwaffe men that continued to report to the Luftwaffe while the Kriegsmarine held provisions for them. If you look at deZeng’s list of Luftwaffe officsr career summaries there are a handful of men that were transferred from the Kriegsmarine to the Luftwaffe for observer training but they remained in the Luftwaffe after. There was an interesting case where a man who received Luftwaffe observer training while he was still in the Kriegsmarine. This was in 1938 after he had served on the Leopard during the Spanish Civil War. The Kriegsmarine surrendered some officers to buildup the new air force upon its creation. They maintained their Kriegsmarine ranks while being trained at Fliegerschule (See) Parow. They would have been awarded Luftwaffe proficiency badges based on training type received and some may have returned to naval service.